The charity, known for its image of sacrifice, owns houses in Los Angeles and Orange counties worth about $52 million. The homes are provided to officers rent-free in lieu of higher pay, it says.

By day, Henry Graciani oversees a 54-bed treatment center for alcoholics and drug addicts who come to him broke and hopeless. After work, he makes a quick drive to the $1.3-million Santa Monica home he shares with his wife and three children.

Graciani is not a high-paid executive returning to a beach retreat. He and his wife, Dina, are career Salvation Army officers who bring home $25,000 per year -- combined. They are among dozens of the charity's officers in Southern California who are paid modest salaries but given rent-free housing -- some in high-priced communities such as Rancho Palos Verdes, Seal Beach and Santa Monica.

FOR THE RECORD: The subheadline in an earlier online version of this article had said the Salvation Army owns houses in the U.S. with a total value of about $4 billion as of 2008. The $4 billion is the total estimated value of all the charity's real estate holdings in the U.S., including commercial real estate. Best known for its red-kettle holiday bell ringers, the Salvation Army is one of the nation's largest charities. It serves more than 69 million meals a year to the needy, houses thousands of the nation's homeless and provides ready response to worldwide disasters -- most recently in Haiti. It's also a real estate powerhouse.

In Los Angeles and Orange counties alone, the charity owns 87 homes and condominiums worth about $52 million. Nationwide, it valued its real estate holdings at about $4 billion in 2008 -- one-third of its total assets.

For more than a century, the Salvation Army has provided a vast social-service safety net throughout the world, offering food for the homeless, shelter for the abused and relief for disaster victims. Founded in 1865 in London, the Salvation Army has an unusual, quasi-military structure and a highly religious mission.

It is led by officers who dress in uniform and carry ranks ranging from cadet -- an officer in training -- to a single general: Shaw Clifton, the group's London-based worldwide leader. Officers are allowed to marry, so long as their spouses agree to become officers as well. The Salvation Army has been boycotted by gay rights groups because it considers homosexuality to be immoral.

Aspiring officers are trained at four Salvation Army colleges in the United States, including one in Rancho Palos Verdes. Officers practice Christianity by running programs to aid the needy. They are paid small salaries and provided houses that the Salvation Army owns across the country.

Salvation Army officials say the real estate program makes sound business sense because it enables them to pay low salaries and transfer officers throughout the country without the burden and delay that typically accompany executive moves. It's a policy similar to that of churches that provide housing to their ministers, said Victor A. Leslie, a lieutenant colonel who oversees the Army's Southern California operations.

A place to live

Graciani's two-story home is made of terra-cotta stucco and has a Spanish-tile roof and an enormous backyard with a trampoline for his children.

"The house is a nice benefit. It's not why I do what I do," Graciani said during an interview in his home's second-floor master bedroom, a ceiling fan whirling overhead. "I do what I do because of my commitment to God to serve people through the Salvation Army."

Some charity analysts said these homes conflict with the image of sacrifice and service that the Salvation Army markets to donors. The organization reported receiving $1.7 billion in support from the public in 2008.

"It creates an appearance issue because John Public thinks, 'I give the Salvation Army my hard-earned 50 bucks and it's going to go to this fancy home I can't afford to live in,' " said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy.

The Salvation Army has long been one of the largest and most recognizable charities in the world. It spent more than $3 billion on services in the U.S. in 2008, according to its annual report.

In Los Angeles County, the charity's programs include a 450-bed homeless shelter in Bell, a community center for youth in a gang-plagued South Los Angeles neighborhood and a Santa Fe Springs transitional center for battered women.

The charity has a reputation as a wise steward of its donors' money. It spends more than 80% of donor money directly on services, with the rest going to overhead, analysts said.

In 1997, the late management guru Peter Drucker told Forbes magazine that the Salvation Army was "by far the most effective organization in the U.S. No one even comes close to it in respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use."

That reputation makes the charity's real estate holdings a surprise to some observers. The group owns three Santa Monica houses worth $1.1 million to $1.6 million and eight properties in wealthy Rancho Palos Verdes -- all used by officers.